Good morning, friends. Welcome to Sabbath school study hour coming to you here from the Granite Bay seventh-day adventist church near Sacramento, California. A very warm welcome to our online members and those who join us on our regular time to study the lesson together. We've been studying through our lesson quarterly dealing with the Holy Spirit. Today we find ourselves on lesson #3 entitled the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
Now, if you don't have a copy of today's lesson, you can download one by simply going to the Amazing Facts website, just amazingfacts.org and you can study along with us. I'd also like to welcome our regular church members and visitors who are here today. We do have a free offer that goes along with our study, it's a book entitled the trinity, and for those watching in North America, we'll be happy to send this to you for free. Just give us a call on our resource phone number - that number is 866-788-3966 - and you can ask for offer #166. Again, it's a book entitled the trinity.
Those outside of North America, if you'd like to read our free offer, just go to the amazing facts website: amazingfacts.org and you can actually read our free offer right there. Just type in the little search bar the book on the trinity and you can study along with us. Well, at this time, before we get to our lesson, as usual, we'd like to begin by lifting our voices in song. I'd like to invite our song leaders to come and join me. Thank you, Pastor Ross.
And I know that those of you here are ready to sing, and I know those of you at home are definitely ready to sing, because we're singing your favorites, like we do every week, and today we're going to start with #306 - draw me nearer - we'll do all three stanzas. Join with us - #306. (Singing) the next song goes along with our theme on the Holy Spirit. It's found on #270 - o holy God - o holy dove of God descending. It's one that we don't sing very often, but it is very beautiful and, if you've never heard it, you will learn it.
We're going to do all four stanzas - #270. Let's do it a little bit slower. (Singing) I hope that is your prayer for today and for the rest of the year. At this time we're going to have prayer and Pastor Ross will be leading us in that. Let's bow our heads for prayer.
Dear Father in Heaven, what a privilege to be able to gather together and study Your Word and, in particular, we're looking at the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. We know, Lord, spiritual things are spiritually discerned and so we invite the Holy Spirit, in a special way, to come and guide our hearts, our minds - we need him to understand more about the work of the Holy Spirit. So bless our time together, for we ask this in Jesus' Name, amen. Our lesson today is going to be brought to us by Pastor Doug. Morning.
Thank you, Pastor Ross. How is everybody? Good. Good to be with you. We're studying a very important lesson dealing with the subject of the Holy Spirit and, you know, I need to confess to you that, as I'm studying this, I'm concerned that we will be like someone who is standing on the outside, talking about dissecting and evaluating and testing the Holy Spirit, when really, as we study this, the most important thing is the Holy Spirit is on the inside - amen. Of us.
So I don't want our lesson study of the Holy Spirit to be us analyzing and defining the Holy Spirit, because it's really the spirit that gives us wisdom to understand who he is. So we need the Spirit in us as we talk about these things. That's the greatest need. And we're going to also be delving into some very - the lesson today is talking about some incredible mysteries that I will freely confess I do not fully understand. I probably don't even partly understand.
'Now we see through a glass darkly' - someday we'll understand this a lot better. Now, as we delve into lesson #3 today, we always like to start with our memory verse, and this memory verse, itself, has a lot of good theology in it. It comes to us from Corinthians chapter 13, verse 14 - Corinthians 13:14 - and if you'd read it with me, I'm reading it right out of the quarterly - it's in the new American standard Bible here. You ready? "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." You'll notice there's several places in the Bible where there are introductions and invocations and blessings, and they incorporate all the persons of the Godhead, and here's one of those examples: Lord Jesus, love of God, fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said to go baptize in the name of The Father, The Son, the Holy Spirit.
I'll repeat something I said last week which is that, of the different members of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit can be, sometimes, the most difficult for us, as mortals, to understand because God is a spirit - spiritual things are spiritually discerned. And we live in three dimensions. When adam and eve sinned, prior to their sin what were they wearing? Not much. Well, it says that they had no clothes - at least, no artificial clothes - but after they sinned, they noticed something different. And that means that they, evidently, had these robes of light and after they sinned, it disappeared.
Adam and eve could talk to God and talk to angels the way that we talk to each other but, after sin, something happened to their communication. And, from what I read in the Bible, I believe that with sin, a whole spiritual dimension of man was lost and, because that spiritual dimension was lost, it's hard for us to comprehend some of these spiritual things - these spiritual realities. Are there angels in the room now? Oh yes. We can't see them. Why not? Because spiritual things are spiritually discerned.
And so, it's just very important that we realize that these are spiritual things and we need God's Spirit to guide us. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is pictured as fire at pentecost - sometimes wind. When Jesus was baptized the Spirit came down like a dove. You see the Holy Spirit sometimes symbolized as - did I mention water, itself? You know, it's like this refreshing. And so, it's a difficult subject, sometimes, to understand, but we're going to do our best and look at a number of verses in the Bible.
Alright, under the first section, talking about the holy spirit and God. Now the title of the lesson, of course, is the Holy Spirit and the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit God? Here's the big question of the lesson today - is the Holy Spirit as fully God as The Father and The Son? Now, I think most of you know that there are dear people that struggle with the idea that Jesus is just as eternal as God The Father. They believe that, yes, Jesus was declared by God - or made by God to be The Son of God, but there was some point way back in the far, remote recesses of eternity when Jesus did not exist, and they quote a vague verse in Proverbs that's really talking about wisdom, that says, you know, 'I made you in the beginning' - and so they think that God, somehow, created Jesus to be another God. But people that believe in the purest form of the trinity believe that Jesus is everlasting - from everlasting to everlasting.
Let me tell you some reasons that I believe Jesus is fully God. Now there are anti-trinitarian people that would disagree, I know, and it is true that some of the early founders of the adventist church, because they were trying to get away from all things catholic, they thought that the catholic - that the doctrine of the trinity was a catholic invention and they were anti-trinitarians - and that's true - but the more they studied, the more they realized, 'you know, though we may not look at the trinity the same way as our catholic friends do, the teaching of God The Father, son, and spirit all being eternal, all being unique persons - all powerful, all knowing - is a biblical teaching. We're going to go through those verses now. There are some teachings in the catholic church that - there's not a verse - I mean, you start talking about purgatory and some of these things, there's nothing - they're just inventions - but there's a lot of good verses that explain this. Follow me for a moment: God is love.
Can you have love with one being? If love cannot be expressed, can you have love? So in order for God to have eternally been love, there had to be more than one. And, because God is love, you've got The Father, son, and the Spirit at the creation. You've got God The Father saying, 'let us make man in our image' and 'the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters'. You've got God The Father, son, and spirit right at the beginning and you go to the end of the Bible where it says 'the Spirit and the bride say come' - so you really have the teaching of the Spirit all the way through the Scriptures - but is the Holy Spirit God? One of the verses given to us here in the lesson is acts 5 - it's a story about - it's kind of a sad story - the disciples in the early days of the church were filled with the holy spirit. No man said aught that he had was his own.
They were selling their possessions, laying the price of it down at the disciples' feet to use for the spreading of the Gospel and sustaining of the people and everything was going great and then all of a sudden you've got a verse - a chapter that begins with 'but'. What does that mean? Everything was wonderful: Holy Spirit, conversions, generosity - but there was a character and he inspired his wife with covetousness - 'a certain man named annanias, with sapphira, his wife, sold a possession and he kept back part of the proceeds, with his wife also being aware of it.' - She was an accomplice in his idea - 'and they brought a certain part' - now there would have been nothing wrong with him saying, you know, 'we sold our land and we'd like to give 50 percent.' There's nothing wrong with that; but they said, 'we sold our land, we consecrate everything we get from this sale to the Lord.' But they didn't. They wanted to sound generous but they wanted to really keep some for themselves. Like the priests who pray long prayers to cover their thievery and Jesus said, you know, 'they blow the trumpet before they make their offering' - they wanted the praise of men and that was the last thing Jesus wanted brought into this new church in its purity - and it said, 'he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife being aware of it, and they brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet.' With some fanfare they probably said, 'this is - we sold our land and here's the full cost of that land.' And Peter said, 'annanias, why has satan filled your heart to lie to the holy spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it reMained, was it not your own? After it was sold it was in your control, why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You've not lied to men but to God.' Now, here's the point: when they lied to the holy spirit - he said you lied to who? To God. To God.
Is God the holy spirit? Yes. Is the Holy Spirit God? I'm going to just take an opposing view - now, I believe the Holy Spirit's God - don't misunderstand - but suppose that you were going to take that verse and say, 'well, Pastor Doug, all it's really saying is that, in the same way, when someone receives Christ - receives you, they receive Christ. If you're - that means, when you lie, since the Holy Spirit is the representative of God, when you lie to the Spirit you lie to God. And they would look at this verse in Luke 10:16, "he who hears you hears me, he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." And so, Jesus, they argue - not me, I'm just saying what some people argue when they hear this verse is that, well, all that Peter was saying there is that since the Holy Spirit is a representative of Jesus, or the power, or the vehicle of Jesus - when you lie to the Spirit, it's the same thing as lying to God. It's kind of like when the Bible says, you know, 'if you do it unto the least of these, my brethren, you've done it to me'.
And so, that's the argument that's made there, but I think there's a lot more verses that explain the Holy Spirit's God. And we're going to dive into some of those here in just a moment. If you look, for instance, someone's going to look up or read for me 1 Corinthians 2 - we'll start with you in just a moment - and I'm going to read Isaiah 40:13 and 14 - it says, "who has measured the Spirit of the Lord or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the paths of justice and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?" Now, what are the characteristics of God - when you look for definitions to describe God, what are they? Omnipotent - which means what? Potency - means all power - omniscient? That's where you get conscience - it's knowing all-knowing - and omnipresent - it's everywhere. And I say omnipathic - meaning 'all-feeling' - that's like all-knowing also - same thing. Alright, so when you have that in mind it says, 'who's measured the Spirit of the Lord? Or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult and who made him understand?' He's basically saying, 'God knows everything.
the Spirit of the Lord knows everything. What are you going to teach the Spirit of the Lord? 'Who showed him knowledge?' It's a rhetorical question he's asking. Go ahead, read your verse, for us, in 1 Corinthians - I'm sorry - yeah, 1 Corinthians :10 and 11. "But God has revealed them to us through his spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
For what man knows the things of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." Now that last part of that verse is very important. 'No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.' Now you and I don't know the mind of God because you'd have to be God to know the mind of God. But there is one that knows the mind of God and that's the Spirit of God. Jeremiah chapter 23:24, "'can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him?' Says the Lord; 'do I not fill heaven and earth?'" There is no place in the infinite cosmos - no corner - that God is not aware of. You know, sometimes you - when you're driving around with your phone you say, 'oh, I've got a dead spot here - no reception.
' There's no place where you can go - it doesn't matter if you can go faster than the speed of light to the edge of the universe - if there was a corner - you can't even imagine what the corner of the universe - if there was a corner in the universe, you'd wonder what's on the other side of the wall, right? It just goes on. But there's no place you can go where God is not there - that's what the Bible's telling us. Another example of this would be - there's a story you find in Numbers 11:24 - God called the elders of Israel together - the seventy elders - and God said, 'Moses, you have too much work. the Spirit I gave you, I'm going to give them, so they can help you administrate. And so, all the seventy elders got together, but two of them named eldad and medad did not feel worthy to receive the Spirit and they did not come with the rest of the assembly.
So God took the Spirit that was on him and gave it to them.' Can you think of other times in the Bible that happened? God took the Spirit of Elijah and gave it to Elisha. God gave his spirit at pentecost, so this is like an old testament pentecost. And those seventy elders were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to prophesy - but eldad and medad didn't come, but they were off together in the camp. They didn't go to the assembly, didn't feel worthy, and someone went running to Moses and they said, 'eldad and medad are in the camp and they're prophesying. Forbid them!' And that's when God said, 'are you jealous for my sake Joshua? Would God that all his people were prophets.
' But here, even though eldad and medad were not at the assembly where the Holy Spirit was poured out, the holy spirit still fell on them and they may have been a mile away. So God's Spirit is omnipresent and he sees into every heart. Proverbs 15:13, "the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good." Alright, go ahead, read for us - whoever has that next verse - what was it, Hebrews 9:14? "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Yeah, here it's telling us that through the eternal spirit - so one of the characteristics of God is he is self-existent - everlasting to everlasting. Is the Spirit everlasting? Yeah, you find him from beginning to end in the Bible. Luke 1:35, "and the angel.
..said to her, 'the Holy Spirit will come upon you," - this is the angel speaking to mary - "and the power of the highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that holy one who is to be born will be called The Son of God." So here you've got The Father, son, and spirit in this one verse. You ever think about that? It talks about the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the highest - who is that? The Father - we'll talk about that in just a moment: is there a distinction in the roles of The Father, son, and spirit? - And "that holy one who is to be born" - Holy Spirit, power of the highest - The Father - holy one that would be born - Jesus - father, son, and spirit in that verse. Do you see it? Romans 15:9 - no, Romans 15:19, "in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit" - Holy Spirit's all-powerful - "so that from Jerusalem and round about to illyricium I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ." And so the Bible talks about the power of the Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit just a new testament teaching? No. Where do you see the Holy Spirit in the old testament? Creation.
the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters - were people spirit-filled in the old testament or only after pentecost? I've been listening to some sermons about the Holy Spirit this week and I had to respectfully disagree with one pastor I was listening to. He had some good points, but he made it sound like you're either filled with the Spirit or not at all, and I don't agree. I see the Holy Spirit coming in varying degrees. When were the apostles filled with the Holy Spirit in the new testament? At pentecost. Pentecost.
What happened in the upper room when Jesus breathed on them and said, 'receive the Holy Spirit'? Fire. When they were out casting out devils, did they do that without the Holy Spirit? Before pentecost? Can the Holy Spirit come in degrees? Amen. Yes. I believe that the power can come, you know, you ever see one of those variable speed fans? You can turn it and you can just keep it all full - you've got them in your car, right? You can turn it down low - and, based on the need, God turns up the power. And at pentecost they're getting ready to go to the whole world and they needed to be filled with the Spirit a ton - he turned it on high and then turned it back down.
As we near the end of days, I think God's going to turn it back on high again. And so, I just see many examples where the Holy Spirit just seems to come in varying degrees based upon what the need is at the time. Was David filled with the Spirit? Yes. The Bible says 'take not thy Holy Spirit from me.' And when God fills you with the Spirit, you may not all get the same gift. David might have been filled with the Spirit and spoke or sang or fought.
Samson was filled with the Holy Spirit and he became very strong. He was filled with the Spirit and really didn't say very much. And so, the Spirit of the Lord came on prophets sometimes and they spoke. The Holy Spirit gave different power and in different gifts. So, yes, the Holy Spirit was there.
Alright, there are some quotes I was going to read to you, you know, for those of you who believe in the Spirit of prophecy - I say that because I know we have visitors who are watching that are from all different backgrounds. In the book manuscript releases, vol. 20, Ellen white says there, "there is altogether too little made of the work of the Holy Spirit's influence upon the church. The Holy Spirit is the comforter in Christ's name. He personifies Christ, yet is a distinct personality.
" Now, if any of you wondered what she thought on the subject, that's - that verse kind of covers it. He personifies Christ but he is yet a distinct personality. The Bible says that Jesus personifies The Father. Christ said, 'if you've seen me, you've seen The Father.' But Christ is a distinct personality from The Father. At the baptism of Jesus, do we see The Father, son, and Holy Spirit? You have - well, you don't see The Father, you hear him, but you have Jesus The Son in the water - it's - you know, there's one teaching out there, it's kind of modalism, they believe that there's one God - if you've got friends that are oneness pentecostal, this is what they believe.
They believe that Jesus and The Father are really the same - that The Father, the one God, reveals himself differently. It's like he puts on different masks based on what he wants to communicate. Sometimes God The Father will appear as Jesus and sometimes he'll appear as the Spirit and - or the Spirit is a force. And they struggle with the baptism because here at the baptism you've got Jesus in the water, The Father speaking to The Son - and so, unless Jesus is a ventriloquist, - see what I'm saying - that doesn't work. Jesus is clearly in the water.
He's talking to John the baptist - God The Father is saying, 'this is my son' - it's almost deceptive - he's making it sound like it's coming from heaven - Holy Spirit - God the Spirit is coming in the form of a dove, again, just giving us something that we can visualize, like that peace, remember when the dove came back with the olive leaf in his mouth in the story of Noah? What does the world use a symbol of peace? They get that from the Bible - the dove. Anyway, here's another one - this is from the book evangelism p. 616, "We need to realize that the Holy Spirit, who is as much a person as God, is a person walking through these grounds" - she was talking about camp grounds. Now that's pretty clear. The Holy Spirit is as much a person as God walking through the campgrounds.
A lot of us respect the writings of a.t. Jones. He wrote, "the Holy Spirit is not an influence or an impression, nor peace, nor joy, nor any thing. The Holy Spirit is a person, eternally a divine person." And so, we can see many of the early founders and the Spirit of prophecy, they understood this. Uriah smith was probably the most famous of the early leaders in the adventist church that was sort of anti - he was an aryan - anti-trinitarian believer there.
Now, the next section here talks about biblical hints that also tell us about the nature of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 63:10, "but they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; so he turned himself against them as an enemy, and he fought against them." This is Isaiah 63 and it's talking about, in the old testament, when they rejected the Holy Spirit. And you can go to Numbers 14:11 for that reference. "Then the Lord said to Moses: 'how long will these people reject me?'" - Alright, so notice that? Isaiah and Moses, in Numbers, are talking about the same story - Isaiah said they rebelled and grieved the Holy Spirit; Numbers said they rejected jehovah. Well, they're both God, is the implication of this - these are the hints that the lesson's talking about.
Deuteronomy 32:12, "so the Lord alone led him, and there was no foreign God with him." Well, then the Bible says the Spirit led them. And so it says, 'the Lord led them' - it says 'the Spirit led them.' Well, God and the Spirit are both God. Samuel 23:2, "the Spirit of the Lord" - and this is actually one of the last statements of king David - "the Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His Word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said," - now notice, he's saying 'the Spirit of the Lord spoke by me; the God of Israel' - he's calling the Spirit of the Lord the God of Israel because God and the spirit are one. You have that there.
You seeing what I'm talking about here? "The God of Israel said, 'the rock of Israel spoke to me: he who rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.'" And then we have that verse 1 Corinthians chapter 3:16, "do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." Again, conjoining the holy spirit and God in that verse. And it's not only in Corinthians 3:16, it's in 1 Corinthians 6:19, "or do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit who is in you?" The Bible says your body is a dwelling place for God - it says it's a temple for God. It says the temple for God, temple for the Spirit - God and the Spirit are the same. Now, I'm getting ready - if it wouldn't look like a spectacle, I'd take off my shoes because this is holy ground, but I'm going to try to share with you some things I think are important, but you need to say it cautiously, about what is the relationship between The Father, son, and spirit? There's been a lot of discussion about this.
Matter of fact, I read an article someone sent me last night that talks about the nine big discussions in the evangelical world in 2016 - you know, we've reached the end of and everyone's sort of looking back in retrospect and saying, you know, the most famous people, the biggest arguments, the biggest stress - and so, in the Christian world, they were saying, 'what were the big issues?' And they picked out nine - I don't know why they didn't pick twelve - one for each month - but they picked out nine. Top of the list that the evangelicals were, ostensibly, talking about this last year was the relationship between the father, The Son, and the Spirit - these are trinitarian evangelicals - they believe the trinity very much like we do - and they were discussing did their relationship - what is the nature of their relationship and did it pre-exist before the fall and the creation of the world? The Bible seems to be pretty clear that, at least during our world, that there's a distinction in the roles between The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. And again, it's somewhat of a mystery, but there are some things that are revealed. The general teaching on the subject is that The Father is the head deity and The Son is the one who reveals deity, and the Holy Spirit carries out the work of the deity. We pray, it says, 'to The Father, in the name of The Son, through the power of the Spirit.
' Now, there are two examples you can find probably, in the Bible, where someone prayed directly to Jesus. Can you tell me what they are? When did someone pray to Jesus? What about when stephen was being stoned? His closing prayer was, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' Right? And then - and that's acts 7:59 - and when you get to the end of the Bible, it tells us that 'even so, come Lord Jesus.' It could be interpreted as a prayer to Jesus and so you've got that. Otherwise, every other time in the Bible, when prayer is offered, we pray to who? The Father. To The Father. The prayers are carried by the Spirit - inspired by the Spirit - and we pray in the name of - Jesus.
The Son. So it seems that The Father, at least during our world, the plan of salvation has authority that The Son respects and it - that respect was even before our creation. Jesus says, in John 5:22, "for The Father Judges no one, but has committed all judgment to The Son." Now, the very fact that judgment would be committed or relegated or delegated to The Son would mean that The Father had the authority to delegate it, right? He's saying, 'I will delegate all judgment to you.' If The Father's commanding the angels to worship him, The Father must have some supreme authority. If the Bible says, 'for God so loved the world he gave his son' - for God, The Father, so loved the world he gave - who's initiating the giving? The Father. The Father.
So, you see all through the new testament there seems to be God The Father created all things through Christ - the Lord delegated the creation to the son and all things that were made were made by him. Oh, by the way, that's another good point: if Jesus was created, as some argue, way back in the beginning, how can it be true that all things that were created were created by Christ? Did he create himself? See, it says 'all things' that were created. So Jesus was not created because he created all things. He is not a creation, he is a creator. Isn't that right? That's right.
There's a difference there. John 14:28, "...if you loved me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to The Father,' for my father is greater than i." Is that pretty clear? Now, Christ isn't saying that God The Father is more God than Jesus is. Certainly when Christ was on the earth he laid aside his divinity, so it could be a reference to that, but even in their divine state you can see a difference. Let me - couple of quotes from the Spirit of prophecy here - and this is from the book Patriarchs and Prophets page 35: "sin originated with him who, next to Christ, had been most honored of God" - God The Father - "and was highest in power." She's saying sin originated with the devil who, next to Christ, - Christ was the most honored of The Father - The Father was bestowing the honor. Who came first, the rebellion of lucifer or the creation of our world? What came first? Rebellion of lucifer.
Rebellion of lucifer. So, even way back before our world was created, there seems to have been some respected distinction of roles between the father, son, and spirit. Are you seeing that? Now, the reason I'm going to spend time on this is because I'm running into people who believe in something that, for lack of a better term, would be called the holy triplets - meaning that before the fall of man, God The Father, The Son, and the Spirit were all identical in everything. The Bible, I don't believe, teaches that. So you're going to - if you run into this holy triplet theology, I don't think you can support that.
Now, one reason that as adventists we know better - God does not only have his distinguishing roles that became necessary when our world was created. Does God have other unfallen worlds that pre-existed before our world? How many of you believe that? Yeah, there's other life. It says Christ made the worlds. So he didn't suddenly have to create this order of relationship between the father, son, and the Spirit. When our world came into existence and with the fall of man The Father, son, and spirit had that prior to the creation of our world.
Another quote here - this is from - same book - Patriarchs and Prophets - again, same chapter - 35, "instead of seeking to make God supreme in the affections and allegiance of all created beings, it was his endeavor to secure their service and loyalty to himself" - it's talking about the fall of lucifer - "and coveting the glory with which the infinite father had invested in his son. Before the creation of the world it says the infinite father had invested. Now, if you have an investiture - any of you been to a pathfinder investiture program? Does the candidate graduating pathfinder invest the old-time pathfinder or does the experienced authority invest the - the graduate - the one who's accomplished his task? It's the superior that does that. Now, the fact that God The Father, son, and spirit recognize, voluntarily, an order among them, does that mean that Jesus is less God or the Spirit is less God? No, if they're all-powerful and they're all-knowing, they're divine. They voluntarily, because they are motivated by love, respect a distinction in roles.
And so, you can see that here. Let me give you one more, and this is the book spirit of prophecy volume 2, page 9, "The Son of God was next in authority to the great law giver. He knew that his life alone could be sufficient to ransom fallen man." It's talking about way back at the fall he was next in authority to God. Alright, let me give you a couple other verses from the Bible. Hebrews 1 - and someone's going to read for me in a minute Matthew 28:18, okay? You guys confused me this time because you got - you're mixed up - usually you go in order.
Hebrews 1:1 and 2, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to The Fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things," - so The Father appointed The Son heir, do you see that? - "Through whom also he made the worlds;" - he made the worlds through Christ - The Father appointed The Son. There's this respected authority. Colossians 1:16, "for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or authorities [principalities or powers]. All things were created through him and for him." And then, of course, we already read John 3:16. Go ahead, read Matthew 28:18 for us.
"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." So Christ is given all authority. Now this is a little bit confusing because you could say, 'if he has all authority, then there's no higher authority. But it says the authority was given. Well, who is it given by? Who in the world out there could possibly give Christ this authority? That's God The Father. Then again, it would be argued, 'well, that's just while he was here on earth.
' Let me give you another one, 1 Corinthians :27, "for 'he'" - God The Father - "'has put all things under his feet.' But when he says 'all things are put in subjection' it is plain that he is excepted, 'who put all things under him.' Philippians 2:9, "therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name," - so who is the one being highly exalted? Jesus. Jesus. Who is the one who highly exalts him? The Father. The Father. You find this - these are just a few verses - you find this all through the new testament.
And so, there's no question that, at least on earth, there is a distinction of authority, but how far back does it go? I believe that the early church understood that these roles are eternal in nature. Okay, we need to move on with the lesson - the divine work of the Holy Spirit is our next section. Titus chapter 3, verse 4, "but when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing and regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly" - you notice it says 'whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.' Is the Holy Spirit a force or is the Holy Spirit a person? Person. Sometimes, you know, it looks like the Holy Spirit's a force because he has a power, but Christ clearly calls him a he. And you can look at the power of the Spirit and we often, you know, Jesus said, the wind blows through the trees and you can hear the sound of it, but you don't know where it came from or where it's going.
So then he says this is like the new birth - the power of the Spirit that works in us. It's a person - the Bible talks about having a personal relationship with Jesus. Now this is all related so stay with me. We're talking about the trinity because you're talking about the relationship of the Spirit with God The Father and The Son, but Christ said, 'it's expedient that I go for unless I go I cannot send the Holy Spirit...but I will be with you wherever you go.' Now, is Jesus omnipresent now in his body? Does Christ have a physical body? At his resurrection? Let's start with that. He does.
He appeared - 'touch me, hold me, feel my hands, see I'm real.' He ate in front of them - he said, 'I've got a body.' He's eternally aligned himself with the human family. Did Jesus appear several times after the resurrection? Yes. Does he ever appear at two places at the same time? No. No record of that happening. That's why he said 'it's important that I go, because I can only be with you personally one on one.
I have forever aligned myself with the human family through the incarnation.' God - Jesus did not give up the incarnation after the resurrection. The incarnation of Christ was an eternal sacrifice that Jesus made, in that he took on a human form. Now, he's all-knowing. He's all-powerful. He's with us through God the Spirit, because he said, 'if you've seen me you've seen The Father.
' And it's also true that if you see the Spirit, you have The Son. Does that make sense? So the Spirit can be with all of you always wherever you are, but I'm now at the right hand of The Father. Doesn't the Bible seem to place Jesus at different locations? It says he's in the holy place, he's in the most holy place - 'I'm coming again.' If he's already here, why does he need to come? You see what I'm saying? He's got a body now. He's got a place. So, again, we're on holy ground here.
So I'm saying these things by permission, not by commandment, but this is my understanding. It makes you shudder when you think - teaching, you have greater accountability - when you start teaching about God, boy you better tremble because it's sacred business. Alright, let's move on here. What was the last verse I read? Titus. Titus.
Let's go to Romans 8:2 - thank you, dear - Romans 8:2, "for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." There's a spirit of life in Jesus Christ comes through the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 6:8 through 10, "also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: 'whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' You notice he says, 'who will I send?' And then said, 'who will go for us?' God said, 'let us make man in our...' You know another place where God says 'us'? In Genesis 11, the tower of babel. The man has become like us to know good and evil in the garden of eden, and said, in Genesis 11 when they're making the tower, God says 'us' again in that verse. Isaiah 8, 'I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:" - or Isaiah 6:8 - "'who shall go for us?'" He said, "'here am i! Send me.' And he said, 'go, and tell this people: 'keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.
'" Now Peter, quoting Isaiah says in acts 28:25, "so when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: 'the Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, 'go to this people and say: 'hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you will see, and not perceive;''" now, do you catch what's happening here? In Isaiah, the Lord said. Paul, referring to when the Lord spoke in Isaiah said, 'the Holy Spirit' spoke. He's saying it was the Holy Spirit - Isaiah says it was God - jehovah. It's because God and the Holy Spirit are both God, okay? Does that make sense? Alright, I've got more verses. Let's look, just in tying this off now, I want to look at a number of verses where you can find evidence for The Father, son, and spirit in one verse - that they're all there.
I already talked about Genesis - God said, 'let us', but we're going to look at a number. Now someone's going to read for me in a moment John 14:26 - that's appropriate, John'll read John. Alright, 1 Peter 1:2, "elect according to the foreknowledge of God The Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:" there you've got it: God the father - sanctification of the Spirit - "...the blood of Jesus Christ: grace be to you and peace be multiplied." Matter of fact, you will find in the introductions that Paul makes to his letters, there's almost always a reference to the father and son and frequently father, son, and spirit. All are invoked in the introduction and sometimes the conclusion of these letters. 2 Corinthians 13:14 - I think this is our memory verse - "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
" It's a blessing that's been pronounced. That's a good benediction that you could use. Matthew 3:16 and 17, "when he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water;" - we referred to this - "...the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove...and suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, 'this is my beloved son,'" - you've got the father, son, and the Spirit. Matthew 12:28, "but if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the Kingdom of God has come upon you." You've got 'i' - Jesus - spirit of God - kingdom of God - God The Father in one verse. I already read to you Matthew 28:19, 'go and teach - make disciples - baptizing in the name of the' - what? Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.
You know, there's one church - oneness pentecostals - they say you should only baptize in the name of the Lord Jesus, because it is true, in the book of acts, Peter said, 'baptize in the name of the Lord, baptize in the name of Jesus' - they use it interchangeably so we try to cover all the bases here at Granite Bay; we baptize in the name of The Father, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. By the way, if - the emphasis at baptism is never made on the exact utterance, it's being baptized in the name of the God of the Bible is what it is. Alright, read for us, please John 14:26. John 14:26, "but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom The Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." There you have it again, the Holy Spirit, The Father, my name - being Jesus - The Father, The Son, and spirit in that verse. John 15:26, "but when the helper comes, whom I shall send to you from The Father, the Spirit of truth whom proceeds from the father, he" - not 'it' - "he will testify of me.
" There you have The Father, The Son, and the Spirit in that verse. Acts 1:4, "and being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of The Father, 'which,' he said, 'you have heard from me; for truly John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized not many days from now with the Holy Spirit.'" And so you've got Jesus, The Father, the Holy Spirit - in that verse. Acts 2, verse 33, "therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from The Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear." God, the Holy Spirit, and being poured out of Christ the promise of The Father. Acts 10:38, "...God anointed Jesus of nazareth with the holy spirit and with power, who went about doing good" - there you have God anointed Jesus - Holy Spirit - father, son, holy spirit. This is not all of them.
I think, in the new testament, there's like 27 different verses where you find The Father, son, and Holy Spirit all mentioned in one verse. And so, this is not a truth that came quickly to many Christians, but when you do some careful study, you've got - and you know what? If you're going to make a mistake - if you're going to under-respect somebody or over-respect somebody, which should you do? Over. Over-respect. I'd rather be guilty of giving too much credit to somebody than not the credit that they deserve. And because there is so much said about the power of the spirit and the divine nature of the Spirit and the independent - think about what an individual does - when you say 'he' you're talking about a person.
People can be hurt. Do you know the Holy Spirit can be hurt? People speak - the Holy Spirit speaks. The Holy Spirit guides - the Bible says the Holy Spirit can be grieved, right? Yes. You don't grieve an it - that means it's got feelings - it's - yep, did it right there - the Holy Spirit, he has feelings. Can you find an example in the Bible of someone praying to the Holy Spirit? David? David said, 'take not your Holy Spirit from me.
' I don't think he was praying to the Holy Spirit. Usually we pray in the Spirit to God in the name of Jesus. I just mention that because, if you go to a charismatic - how many of you have visited a charismatic church - pentecostal church - speaking in tongues church? You'll often hear them praying to the Holy Spirit, but you don't really see that in the Bible. The Holy Spirit is always wanting to just deflect any attention to The Father and The Son. And his office is to exalt - bring to remembrance - but he does have a unique character.
You know another reason I think we struggle is just the terms father, son, spirit - we try to equate those with the biological father-sons that we have - family ties - and we think - quick story - I was preaching in waco, Texas - when you hear waco, Texas, what do you think? Sorry to our friends in waco - lovely people in waco - and David koresh came to the church - he didn't come in, but he and his people became the branch Davidians because they were Sabbath keepers. They came to straighten out the adventists and they came after the service. And I remember - I still remember I preached on Daniel in the lion's den and some of them came in and listened. And at the door they were handing out literature that said, 'God The Father had sexual relations with the Holy Spirit and Jesus was the product.' So they were making the Holy Spirit out to be the mother - a woman - and giving them like biological attributes and - that's sacrilegious. You can't do that with God.
These are terms that God just uses to help us understand his love for us in ways that we can comprehend. Alright, just a few more quotes and we'll be out of time here. Galatians - well, let's go to Galatians 4:6 "and because you are The Sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, 'abba, father!'" Again, father, son, spirit right there. Ephesians 1:17, "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, The Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit" - God The Father, son, spirit right there. Hebrews 9:14, "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God," - Christ, the Spirit, God - right there - you seeing it? I'm giving you all these different verses.
Here's another one - this is from the book evangelism 615 - this is a good quote - now - if you miss everything else, this is really clear - "there are three living persons of the heavenly trio. In the names of these three great powers: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit, those who receive Christ by heavenly faith are baptized. These powers will cooperate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life." Three living persons - are they distinct persons? Ellen white definitely thought so. And let me give you - let me see here - one more verse and this is in our last section: the importance of his divinity - 1 Peter 1:2, "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace be multiplied." I want to remind our friends that are watching, we do have a free book. It's called the trinity and it talks, of course, about the nature of the Spirit and his being a unique person and ask for offer #166.
And the phone number, if you want to call in, is 866-788-3966 - we'll send it to you for free, just promise to read it and then share it with somebody - that's actually 866-study-more. God bless you, friends, and we look forward to continuing studying this lesson on the holy spirit with you in the near future. Hello friends, we're here in the Philippines overlooking the taal volcano and lake, which is one of the most interesting pieces of geography in the whole world. For one thing, this great caldara was once the biggest volcano in the world, and now it holds a lake that holds another volcano that has another little lake in it that has another little island in it. This volcano has erupted six times, in a major way, since the 1500s and, even in 1911, there was an eruption where over 1300 people died - killed by the smoke and the ash that covered the community.
There were tsunamis that came from the lake and destroyed the villages that surrounded the borders of the lake. In fact, this is one of the most carefully monitored seismic places in the Philippines. This volcano is being watched all the time and they've noticed, as of 2006, that it appears that the water temperatures are going up. There's increased seismic activity. In other words, they know that this volcano is a ticking time bomb prepared to blow.
And it's very interesting, because this place is a place of great seismic activity, but in spite of the fact that vulcanologists know this is going to blow again someday, it is a popular tourist destination. They're fighting for the real estate, they're building like mad, and sit on the edge of disaster. It makes us think about how God has given us so many warnings in His Word that the world is going to end, that Jesus is going to come, that the heavens will dissolve with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat, seeing then that all these things will be dissolved, what kind of people should we be in all holy conversation and Godliness. Friends, are you becoming distracted with the tranquil views of the world or are you preparing for the next world? Are you getting ready for the big bang? Can't get enough Amazing Facts Bible study? You don't have to wait until next week to enjoy more truth-filled programming, visit the Amazing Facts media library at 'aftv.org'. At 'aftv.org' you can enjoy video and audio presentations as well as printed material all free of charge, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, right from your computer or mobile device. Visit 'aftv.org'. For life-changing Christian resources, visit afbookstore.com