Today begins our Area-Wide Gospel Meeting, July 29-August 3. The theme is "The Holy Spirit." Specific topics will be covered in each message. Topics like: The Holy Spirit and sanctification, the new birth, the Scriptures, the new covenant, worship, and the human spirit. This morning in each congregation, a message on "The Deity of the Holy Spirit" is being presented to begin the series. I want to encourage each of you to attend as many of these as you can. The lessons should be very beneficial in helping us to understand more about the Holy Spirit of God.

In considering the topic of the Holy Spirit, I want to look at some things in general about the subject. Here are some important, but simple, things to remember.

There is a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible refers to these three often. It would be confusing, at the least, and purposefully deceiving, at the worst, if the Bible used such language but such Beings did not exist. First, we should note that there is a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the well-known doxology of Paul at the conclusion of the Corinthian letter, he wrote, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all." (2 Cor. 13:13.) In the Great Commission, Jesus said, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Matt. 28:19.) If there exists only one Divine Being, but One who plays three roles, we are left with a lot of confusion. The Bible declares that God is not the author of confusion but of peace. (1 Cor. 14:33.)

There is a difference between the word and the Holy Spirit. Sometimes people mentally substitute the word of God for the Holy Spirit. Those who deny an indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the body of the Christian often read those passages as if it means the word of God. Note the following verses:

"What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God’s." (1 Cor. 6:19-20.)

"And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath hath given to them that obey him." (Acts 5:32.)

"In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." (Eph. 2:21-22.)

"Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2:38.)

The Bible writers knew how to use the words, Spirit and word. When it means the word, it says so. "And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." (Eph. 6:17.) The sword of the Spirit is the Word, but the Word is not the Spirit. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matt. 4:4.)

The Holy Spirit does many things in addition to what He does through the word of God. We should not limit the Spirit to what He does through the Word. For example: The Spirit was involved in the creation, in making intercession for us (Rom. 8:26, Eph. 6:18), in empowering Jesus and the apostles, indwelling the believer, in producing the fruits named in Gal. 5, in providence and answering prayers, and in the ending of this present age and the beginning of the new heaven and new earth. We have, in effect, "killed the Spirit" by making Him equal to the Word of God. The Spirit is not the Word! The Word is not the Spirit.

The wind blows where it desires. Jesus used the wind as an illustration to say something about the Holy Spirit to Nicodemus. (John 3:8.) It is difficult, yea impossible, for us to control or corner the wind. We cannot even see it. We know that it exists, but it blows where it desires. Concerning the Holy Spirit, we should not try to put Him in a box. We can say the same thing about the Father and Son. Man wants so much to control God. He is greater than any thoughts you have ever had about Him. (See Eph. 3:20.) You cannot limit the Holy Spirit of God. Some in Israel tried to limit Him. (Psalm 78:41.) Christians today try to limit Him in like manner. The Holy Spirit does not conform to what you think He should do, what you think that He cannot do, and where you think He should abide!

We have a tendency to think the way Deists do about God. Thomas Jefferson was a deist. They imagine that God created the world, wound it up like you would a clock, and backed off to let it run on its own. We make a tremendous mistake theologically if we think that we can pigeonhole God Almighty! Yes, we can try to understand what the Bible says about God and what he does in our world. But there is one thing that the Bible says clearly; that is, God is a Spirit. (John 4:24.) You cannot control, imprison, and put a spirit in a box. A "spirit" is a difficult thing for a man with clay feet and hands to handle. The Spirit has a tremendous advantage over man in the flesh. We cannot win competing with Him. We cannot fully understand God! His greatness is unsearchable. (Psa. 145:3.)

The Spirit and Center Stage. Jesus said this important statement about the Holy Spirit. "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall he speak and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I, that He shall take of mine and shall show it unto you." (John 16:13-15.)

One of the good reasons why we have spoken so much about the Father and the Son is because the Spirit does not point us toward Himself, but toward the Son. He does not take center stage. This age is not the age of the Spirit. It has always been the age of the Son. He does not want center stage. He never parades his own presence.

This does not mean that we should not speak about the Holy Spirit and learn all that we can about Him. It does not mean that we should ignore the Spirit as if He does not exist. It means that we honor the Spirit when we honor the Son whom he came to glorify.

"The old cliché’ says that the hardest instrument to play is second fiddle. Perhaps it is not out of place to say that the Spirit does this with enthusiasm and love for the Son. How wonderful to know this about the Holy Spirit that He finds joy in working to bring glory to the Savior. It gives coherence to our own lives when we remember that the divine communion of persons knows nothing of envy, and when a specific one is adored, all rejoice." (Where the Spirit of the Lord Is, Jim McGuiggan, 39-41.)

The Holy Spirit, deity and the miraculous. People most often think about miraculous, supernatural, unusual things when they think about the work of the Holy Spirit. It is true that being a Divine Being, He performed supernatural things and gave gifts to prophets and apostles to do miraculous deeds. However, the Holy Spirit should not be associated with strange voices, bizarre behavior, or unexplainable happenings. He does not cause people to say things that no one understands. Speaking in tongues was speaking in a known language of human beings. One television evangelist pretends that the presence of the Holy Spirit knocks people backward to the floor. Is it not strange that someone has to stand behind them to catch them! If the Holy Spirit is present, could He not catch them?

All of these false claims about the Spirit have caused many to belittle the Holy Spirit of God. Just the mention of His name causes many to back away. Some preachers have ruined His reputation among men.

Yes, the Holy Spirit should be associated with power. He is a divine being. The Spirit of God moved across the face of the waters in the creation of the world. He is involved in the recreation of man in conversion. The church began with power on the Day of Pentecost. (Acts 1:8.) Jehovah Witnesses, when writing about the Holy Spirit use the lower case letters, h and s. They say that He is nothing more than "Jehovah’s Active Force" which is used as the instrument of divine accomplishment among men. (Making Sure Of All Things . . . , Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1965, 466.) The Unitarians hold that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than the eternal energy of God. It is easier for us to think about the Father and Son as being more personal. They are Beings with whom we can more easily identify. The very idea of "Father" is easy to grasp and to appreciate. It is even more heart warming to think about Jesus as the babe in Bethlehem, the carpenter of Nazareth, and the teacher of Galilee. We are moved by His death on the cross. But the Holy Spirit is much more difficult for us to grasp and to identify ourselves with Him. We should think about a divine Being when we think of the Holy Spirit, and we should think about awesome power.

But we should also think about purity. The works of the flesh produce wicked and evil things. The fruit of the Spirit involves wonderful things that are pure and good. (Gal. 5:19-23.) Just as we think about purity in reference to Jesus and holiness when we think about God, just so, we should think in like manner about the Holy Spirit. If a person has the Spirit of God, he will behavior in a godly manner.

The Holy Spirit has a divine work and purpose. He is not a toy with which humans can play. He does not play with man making him do unreasonable or non-sensible things. He had a specific work in guiding the apostles into all truth and in aiding them in their work of establishing the church. He now intercedes for Christians to the throne of God the Father. When we reject Him, He can be grieved. He is involved in every new birth into the family of God. (John 3:3-5.) We are born of water and the Spirit. A major work of the Spirit presently is character formation in Christians. The Spirit of God has been given to saved people to make us Christ-like. The Spirit teaches of Christ, which permits us to be saved by faith in him.

The Holy Spirit should always be associated with life. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Rom. 8:2.) "For if ye live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live." (8:13.) "If you live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." (Gal. 5:25.) Man’s spirit is quickened or made alive by the Spirit of God in the conversion process.