Ishmael LaBiosa: Welcome to the You Ask Podcast, where the goal is to answer common questions about Christianity. Let's listen in as Pastor Rusty answers today's question. Today's question is: who is the Holy Spirit? Well, when we talk about the Holy Spirit, the way in which we can organize our thoughts around the Holy Spirit is firstly to think about the person of the Holy Spirit, and then secondarily, to think about the Work of the Holy Spirit. So the first thing we ought to say about the person of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit is God. And to give you a few key texts to show you that indeed the Holy Spirit is God, Acts 5, 3, and 4 is probably my favorite text to make this argument very straightforward. It says, Then Peter said, Ananias. Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds from the field? Wasn't it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn't it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God? And so that's a clear text there in the book of Acts, where the Holy Spirit is used interchangeably with God. Also, 1 Corinthians 3, 16, don't you know that? You are God's sanctuary, and the Spirit of God lives in you. Or we could look at a text like Hebrews 9 14. How much more with the blood of the Messiah who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God? And second Peter 1 21 Because no prophecy ever came by the will of man, instead, moved by the Holy Spirit, men spoke from God. So the first big idea: who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God. We also should notice that the Holy Spirit is God. And because we believe in the Trinity, the Bible also teaches that the Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force or not an it. And The way we can see this is in John 16, it says in verse thirteen, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will speak not of his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. And then we also have text, for example, in first Thessalonians five, nineteen, that the Holy Spirit comes. It's not a force, but a person, because he can be grieved. The Bible says, Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. So when someone asks you, Who is the Holy Spirit? you can say the Holy Spirit is God and one of the three persons of the Trinity. Now, when it comes to the second question about the Holy Spirit or the second part of this question, not only who is the Holy Spirit in his person. But who's the Holy Spirit in his work? Where do we see the Holy Spirit appearing in the Old Testament? That's what we'll look at first, and then in the New Testament. I think we'll be rather surprised at how much the Holy Spirit is actually active in the Old Testament. For example, the Holy Spirit's active in the first chapter of the Bible. It says, And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters, Genesis 1, 2. It seems that the Holy Spirit was at least present at creation and potentially active in creation. Now notice the word spirit actually can also be translated breath. So Psalm thirty-three, six, it says the heavens were made by the word of the Lord and the stars by the breath, which that's the same word for spirit of his mouth. Job twenty-six thirteen, by his breath the heavens game their Beauty. It also shows that in the Old Testament that not only is the Holy Spirit in creation, the Holy Spirit seems to be in creativity. God commands Moses to build a tabernacle, and God raises up two men, the Azeel and another gentleman called Aholab. And it says in Exodus three, verse three, I have filled him with God's Spirit with wisdom, understanding, and ability of every craft to design artistic works in gold, silver, and bronze. So as we say it, God, the Holy Spirit, is there in creation and responsible for creativity in the building of the tabernacle. We also know in the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit is responsible for divine care. Isaiah 63, verse 11 through 14, it says, Where is he who put his Holy Spirit among the flock? Like cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So the Holy Spirit is there for divine care. The Holy Spirit is also in the Old Testament responsible for divine governance. It says in Numbers, when Moses had too much to do. It says, Bring me seventy men from Israel, known to you as elders and officers of the people, take them to the tent of meeting and have them come stand there with you, and then I will come down and speak to you there. I will take some of the spirit who is on you and put the spirit on them. Also, the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is responsible for prophetic communication. Micah three, verse eight. But as for me I am filled with power by the Holy Spirit. And then Ezekiel eleven. The Spirit of the Lord came upon me and told me, You are to say. The Holy Spirit is also responsible for divine presence. Haggai 2, verse 5. This is the promise I made with you when I came out of Egypt. My spirit is present among you, and the future Messiah is intricately related to the work of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 11, verse 2. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. In the New Testament, so we get to see, I mean, the Holy Spirit's quite active in the Old Testament. So that's just a very quick review of the many things that the Holy Spirit appears. So it's not like we get to the New Testament and all of a sudden there's a Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's been active. Throughout the Old Testament and many of the things the Holy Spirit did in the Old Testament, he does in the New Testament in a fuller way. In the New Testament, let's just notice where the Holy Spirit appears. The Holy Spirit is responsible for the virginal conception. In Matthew 10, it says, What has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit. See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son. Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then appears in baptism as confirmation that Jesus is exactly who he says he is. It says after Jesus was baptized, he went up and immediately from the water of the heavens suddenly opened, and he saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove coming down on him. The Holy Spirit in the ministry of Jesus is Responsible for guidance. That's also something very important that also happens in the church. Matthew 4 1, it says, Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And then the Holy Spirit is responsible for gospel preaching and powerful acts. Luke 4, 18 and 19, Jesus says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. The Holy Spirit is present in the death of Jesus. Hebrews 9, verse 14, how much more will the blood of the Messiah who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot and blemish? Then the Holy Spirit's not only there in the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is there at the resurrection. Romans 1, verse 4, and it says, was established by the powerful Son of God, by the resurrection of the dead, according to the Spirit of Holiness. I want to slow down a little bit because For the life of the Christian, the Holy Spirit takes up a role. And one of the role that the Holy Spirit takes is talked about in John 14 as the role of the counselor. Actually, Jesus says, I'm sending you another counselor. Well, if you get another counselor, it means you had a first counselor, and the first counselor was Jesus, and the second counselor, the another counselor is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does for us. What Jesus would do for us if he were physically present. Many people say, I wish Jesus were around. Jesus actually said, it's good that he's not around. He says, Because when I go, I will send the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit communes with us, he encourages us, he counsels us, he applies God's word to us as if Jesus were here among us. The Holy Spirit is also the empowerment of the church. We read Acts 2, where we are told that the Holy Spirit is poured out now, not on a special group of people, but poured out on all people. All Christians have access to the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is poured out and propels the church on mission. We also notice that in our own Christian life, how does our Christian life begin? By the Holy Spirit. We trust in Jesus. And we are born again. But how do we get our heart of sin and stone to become a heart malleable towards God by the Holy Spirit? That's what the language of born again means. Also, the Holy Spirit's active not only in our regeneration or our being born again, the Holy Spirit's active in our sanctification, which means our growing in Christ's likeness. We are to walk by the Spirit. Meaning we are to give ourselves over to God, to his will, embracing his love, and we are to possess the virtues or the fruit of the spirit. Also, the spirit is responsible for the unity of the church, because it says, For we are all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, we are all made to drink of one spirit. And we also know that the Holy Spirit is active, certainly he should be, in our corporate worship, that we ought to allow the Spirit of God to speak, speak to us individually, speak to us collectively, so that we know what the Spirit is saying, and that at the end of the Bible, Revelation twenty two. 217, both the Spirit and the bride say come. The Spirit of God is there at the consummation of all things. So, what should we think about the Holy Spirit? Well, let's have a quick review. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is a person, one of the three persons of the Trinity. That is his person. What about his work? Well, he does a lot of things for us. The Holy Spirit is the one who makes the mystery of God known to us. The Holy Spirit discloses God to us. The Holy Spirit inspires the scriptures. The Holy Spirit gives us new life. The Holy Spirit enables us to keep God's word and to make us holy. The Holy Spirit's gifts allow us to fulfill our mission and many other things. So I just want to try to simply answer a complex question. When you think about the Holy Spirit, you ought to think about firstly his person, secondarily, his work. And as you read through the Bible, both Old and New Testament, unfortunately, many people neglect the Holy Spirit, but in both testaments, the person and work of the Holy Spirit are replete with different activities. And we ought to know who the Holy Spirit is and what the Holy Spirit. Does. Thank you for listening to the You Ask Podcast. This is a ministry of Liberty Baptist Church, and we pray this podcast enables you to more faithfully live out your Christian life.