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Okay. If you would, please open up your bible to first Thessalonians chapter five. First Thessalonians chapter five. We're gonna read that verse and then we're gonna go to Hebrews chapter four and verse 12 and then second Corinthians four sixteen here at the beginning of class. So first Thessalonians chapter five and verse 23.

Before we get started, it is our custom to, go to God in prayer as we begin our bible class. So if you'll bow with me, please, we'll do that together. Our great God and father in heaven, thank you for this day. Thank you for this group of people. Thank you for the love that we share for one another, for you, for your son, for the holy spirit.

And I pray father as we're learning more about who you are as God, who the holy spirit is as God, I pray that we would understand as best we can, so that we might see your glory and your majesty, so that we might understand the spirits working in our lives, so that we might be able to more closely resemble who you would have us to be in all of these things. And thank you for the good hearts of this peep the people in this room who are studying this together. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay.

Just to limber up our minds a little bit, I want you to think for just a couple of seconds about this and decide if you agree or disagree. Agree or disagree. It's not just that we have a spirit, but that we are a spirit. We have a body. Okay?

So think about that. It's not just that we have a spirit, but that we are a spirit, we have a body. Now some are already doing thumbs up or thumbs down right here, that's fine, but think about it for just a second and I want everybody to do thumbs up or thumbs down if you agree with that statement. Ready? It's not just that we have a spirit, but that we are a spirit, we have a body.

Who agrees or disagrees with that statement? Okay. Got lots of thumbs up, lots of thumbs up. Well, it's interesting, we gotta be careful about this. Separating the two while on earth is pretty difficult, isn't it?

Separating spirit and body. In first Thessalonians five and verse 23, for example, if you look there. First Thessalonians chapter five and verse 23. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. So sanctification, complete sanctification would include what parts of us if we are gonna be totally sanctified and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, body and soul are included in that. You go to Hebrews chapter four for just a second. Hebrews chapter four. Here's how difficult it is to divide some of those things, for the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So the parts that make us up are are difficult to separate, difficult to see the difference between.

And when we think about this statement and this idea that we are a spirit and have a body, I agree. I think that statement is true. But I also think that we are never intended to be, at least for any long sort of period of time, we are never intended to be bodiless spirits. So we are a spirit and we have a body but those spirits are intended to have a body. So turn to second Corinthians chapter four, if you would.

Second Corinthians chapter four. Start reading with me in verse 16. Second Corinthians chapter four and verse 16. Therefore, we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

While we do not look at the things that are seen but at the things which are not seen, for the things that are seen are temporary, What do we see? What do I'm looking out here, what do I see? Bodies, right? Lots of bodies and those things are what? Temporary because they're seen.

But the things which are not seen, I look out here and what do I not see? Your spirits, right? Those things are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, which is what? Our body, right?

Is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, which is not our spirit. That is another body that God will give us. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. So naked in this particular context would be what? A bodiless spirit.

Right? So a spirit without a body, we would be found naked. For we who are in this tent, is our body, grown being burdened not because we want to be unclothed, that is a spirit without a body, but further clothed that mortality might be swallowed up by life. So God intends for us as spirits to have bodies and we have physical bodies that we inhabit right now, but we will have a spiritual body that is being prepared for those who love the Lord. Now, having said all of that, I think it is helpful to think about things the way this particular person in our class thinks about things.

So I'm gonna quote one of the comments that I've received and can I say this for just a second? Y'all are wonderful, thoughtful, spiritual bible students and I just I love that so much. I love the honest and sincere questions I've received. I love the thoughtful and sincere comments that I've received as we're studying the Holy Spirit together. And that just has been an encouragement, an unexpected encouragement to me in this class is receiving some of those things.

So one of our members wrote me this, when I think of the dual nature of many of God's creations, I have attempted to try and think of things including myself as spirit first and physical second. And I think that is the kind of perspective that we need to have. We are spirit, we have a body, but this idea of thinking of ourselves as spiritual beings first and then physical beings second, I think is really really helpful for us And it's helpful in our study of the Holy Spirit. So, just by way of reminder, here are the topics we plan to cover in this class. The Greek word for spirit that we'll finish up today and then spirit is deity in person, number two, that's what we're gonna we're gonna talk about later on in this class as well.

Hopefully, we'll finish both of those up by the end of class tonight. So let's talk about that and when I say finish those up, that's not like, signed, sealed, delivered, no more questions on that, right? No more questions about the Holy Spirit as deity. I don't want any more of those, I'm gonna give you full satisfaction but for the purposes of presenting this material, we're gonna try to finish up those two topics. Now there's a handout for this that is on the table there, the little stand there in the foyer, as you come in with all of these possible uses of the word spirit.

In Greek, that's the word pneuma, right? Spirit and all of these possible uses. I've given this to you and I've got scripture references for every use. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. The handout that you got last week and there's some of those left on the table in the foyer as well, the stand in the foyer as well.

That's an exhaustive list of every use of the word spirit, pneuma in the New Testament. This is a representative list showing you some examples of every one of these, with one notable exception, there are so many on the Holy Spirit and that's the point of our study. I didn't write down a bunch of examples for the Holy Spirit. That's the first way that this word or spirit is used. It's used to refer to the Holy Spirit.

We also have this idea of the helper or comforter that is the Holy Spirit, the promise of the father in Luke 24 and Acts one, that's the Holy Spirit as well. That word is used for evil spirits, the demons. It's used at least one time for Satan himself in Ephesians chapter two. It's used for good spirits or a spiritual being. We think about the angels and the spirits, so spiritual beings.

I would I would assume that includes the Seraphim and those sorts of things, the Cherubim and then angels. So it's sometimes used as we would think about a ghost, so a spirit as a ghost, they thought they saw a ghost, thought they saw a spirit. It's used for the breath of God in the New Testament it's actually used for the breath of God in the Old Testament quite a bit as well. It's used for wind, the life that is in us, the spirit, so don't think about our spirit and our body, but that life that is in us, that God has given to us, the breath of life, the spirit of life that is in us. Things being spiritual in nature, so that which is from the spirit is spirit, that is it's spiritual in nature, not physical in nature.

And then I skipped this one last time and that's because this is really what I wanna talk about tonight. It is used for our spirit, what we might call our mind, our heart, our will, the seed of our emotions. So who it is we are on the inside. Paul refers to the inner man as opposed to the outer man. So this word spirit is used in that way.

We're gonna go through an example of that, couple of examples of that here in just a moment. So go to Luke chapter one first, Luke chapter one. I'm gonna give you some examples and then we're gonna have some activities where we try and identify this as a class. But start there in Luke chapter one and verse 46. We studied this on Sunday morning, this past Sunday, the Magnificat, the song written by Mary after she is told that she is going to give birth to the Messiah named Jesus.

Notice what she says in forty six and forty seven as she begins this song, and Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in the God of my savior. Hebrews says that the word of God is able to divide between soul and spirit. Now, what's the point that the Hebrew writer is making there? Word of God is sharper than any two edged sword, it can divide things like bones and marrow, even things that are really closely together. And if you were to ask me, what's the difference between our soul and spirit?

It would probably be in the third box. I don't know. I'm not sure about the difference between our soul and spirit but it seems as though that Mary uses those interchangeably right here in this passage. So we think about our soul, our spirit, our inner man who we really are on the inside. Jesus had a spirit in this way, but he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, why does this generation seek a sign?

It has always been encouraging to me how many times the gospel writers say Jesus sighed deeply in his spirit. What word would we use in English to describe what Jesus was there? Sorry? He was frustrated, right? So is it sinful to be frustrated?

No, it is not and for that, I am very grateful. So he sighs in his spirit, in his inner man, in his mind. He is sighing because this generation is seeking a sign, and that's not what they ought to be doing. But we have a spirit as well. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him.

Acts chapter 17 and verse 16. We see of course that that Jesus has a spirit here on earth and that we have a spirit as well in that sense. It's also used of the manner or way of something, you know, the spirit of this and then a mental disposition or attitude or state of mind or character and that's true even of God and of Christ that they have this attitude, state of mind or character. So the spirit of God refers to what? It can refer to the holy spirit when we talk about the spirit of God but it can also refer to the character of God the father.

That this is who God the father is, that's his disposition state of mind. The spirit of Christ can refer, maybe, can prefer depending on how you interpret the passages that use that phrase, can refer perhaps to the Holy Spirit, but it also does refer to the character of Jesus Christ. That this is who Jesus is on the inside, this is who what his disposition is and we need to be imitating that. Okay. If you have your handout from last week, I want you to get that out.

If you don't have that with you, just turn to first John chapter four. Turn to first John chapter four. If you didn't get a handout from last week, just grab one on your way out and hopefully you can follow along in your own bible and we can do this activity together. So I'm gonna give you a little bit of time to answer these two questions about first John four verses seven through 17. Okay?

Yeah. If you would like one of those handouts and you don't have yours with you, raise your hand. Okay. Everybody else look in your bible. Here are the two questions we're gonna ask from these 11 verses.

What are all the words or phrases that connect God to love in these verses? And then the second question we're answering, what words and phrases are used to describe us being like God when we love? Give me a thumbs up if you understand the assignment. Okay. First John four seven through 17.

Give you one more minute. Okay. Let me say this. If you're one of those people who already completed this assignment like I asked you to before class tonight, don't think to yourself now, well, he gave us time in class. I'm not gonna do that again.

It is always better to have gone through it and had some time to meditate on it and those sorts of things ahead of time, but hopefully this has been helpful to you even if this is the first time you're seeing this or thinking about that. So before we answer these two questions, here's what I wanna say first. If you were to hear the phrase, the quotation from the bible that says, God has given us of his spirit, what would you assume that that statement means? God has given us of his spirit. Showed us love.

Okay. You would have I mean, that's not the answer I was looking for, but it is the correct answer. Yes? We're heirs of God's spirit. We receive God's spirit.

I think most people in the religious world when they would hear that would think, well that means we receive the Holy Spirit from God. I'm not saying we don't. What I'm saying is it doesn't always mean that. And let's see if that's what it means here in first John chapter four. Okay.

So first question is, what are the words or phrases that connect God to love? What do we got? Love is of God. Beloved. Beloved.

Born of God. Okay. What else? Connects God to love. God is love.

Right? Twice it says God is love. He has loved us and sent us on to be a propitiation of our sins. Love is of God. God is love.

The love God of God was manifested toward us. He loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. If God so loved us, the love that God has for us, God is love because as he is, that is someone who loves. So you maybe have a few more on that list as well, but all of these words and phrases that connect who God is to love. God is love.

Right? Now what words and phrases are used to describe us being like God when we love? God lives in us. K. God lives in us.

What else? Everyone who loves is born of God, knows God. And I would say even the second part of that. Right? He who does not love does not know God.

There's no connection with God there. No relationship with God if you don't love. Okay. Going, we also ought to love one another. Why?

If god so loved us, we also ought to love one another. If we love one another, god abides in us and his love has been perfected or completed in us if we have love for others like God has for us. He who abides in love abides in God and God in him. I love this phrase right here at the end because as he is, so are we in this world. As God is, so are we in this world.

So by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. What is the spirit of God in this passage? Ronnie already said it but hopefully you didn't hear. What is the spirit of God in this passage? Is it the Holy Spirit?

No. So what is it? Yeah. His image, specifically the spirit of love And so, we love, we have that spirit of God, the attitude, the disposition, the character of selfless sacrificial love and that's what God has given us of his spirit. This is who God is.

We see that because of the way he's loved us and now we are reflections of that. We have that in our spirit as well because we are loving others. That makes sense? Okay. Let's try another activity.

We think about all of these different uses of the word spirit. I tried to find a passage that has as many as I could fit into one particular passage. So turn to Romans chapter eight, if you would, Romans chapter eight verses nine through 16. And all we're doing really with this is trying to aid you, prepare you for your own study. When you're studying the spirit and you see that word, you're reading your bible as the good Christians you are.

You're reading the bible, you run across the word spirit and what is it that this spirit is and what are we talking about when we see that spirit? So here in Romans chapter eight, there are five possible uses of this word, spirit. Our spirit, God's spirit, like we talked about in first John, God the father's character, this is of his spirit who he is, Christ's spirit, that is Jesus' character of who he is, the holy spirit and then a mental disposition or attitude. A spirit of stupor, I think was the first example we used last week. Okay?

So look there in Romans chapter eight nine through 16 and look at all of those words spirit, I think Are they highlighted for you? Okay. They're highlighted just right with each one and say, which use of the word spirit is being used for each one of these. Let me ask you this. Is this a little bit harder than you expected it to be?

Yeah. It is, isn't it? Daniel's like, no. I got it. I'll give you one more minute.

Okay. Let's see if we can go through this. Now I know as good test takers, you probably looked at the ones that were easiest to identify first and those sorts of things. Said, oh, this is obviously this and then that and so forth, process of elimination. But that's not the way we're gonna do it.

Instead, we're just gonna go through and as we come to each one, let's see if we can come to some consensus as a class. And if we all say it is, it must be. Right? Well, maybe not. But we'll do the best to say as a class, which one do we think this is out of those five choices listed for you.

I believe all five are in this passage. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. But I think certainly a good argument is made for all five in this passage. The first thing that I would do in looking at these particular verses is I would put flesh up there. What is our flesh as Paul talks about it here?

Well, what is flesh? First of all, you think about flesh, what is it? Meat. Right? So it's body.

Right? And so Paul is talking about body but not just body. He's really talking about that side of us that is consumed with those things, that's attracted to those things, that that needs those things both good and that need bad but is attracted to the bad but we need the good in regard to our flesh. We're hungry. We have those sorts of needs.

Right? We're sleepy, different things like that. So our flesh, as he uses it though is that those bad things that we might be attracted to because they're fleshly, they're carnal, they're physical as opposed to spiritual things. So the fleshly side of us is contrasted with what side of us? The spirit.

The spiritual side of us. The spirit that we have. So maybe I've set you up a little bit, but I think that's exactly what Paul is doing going all the way back to chapter seven. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. Which of the five do you think that is?

Somebody's got a launch out there and then we can all disagree with you right away. No. Our spirit. Why? Because he's contrasting it with the flesh.

We're not in the flesh, but in the spirit. That's our spirit. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Which one of those is that? I think that's God's character.

There's an argument to be made that that's the holy spirit, but to me if we continue reading it becomes more and more clear that this is God's character. The spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, which spirit is that? Christ's spirit. Right.

Okay. It's not too hard. Not too hard. And how do we know that it's not the Holy Spirit? We're being referred to as the spirit of Christ.

He is not his. And if Christ is in you, right, well how is Christ in us? We get an open heart surgery. Oh, there's Christ in there. How is Christ in us as Christians?

Well, there's a hint there in the word that I used, right? We think and we act and we live like Jesus Christ. His character is in us and so we say that Christ is in us. So that would be to me, the spirit of Christ is Christ's character. If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin but the spirit, which spirit is that?

Our spirit, the spirit of Christ is in you. The spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. Who is that? I think that's God's spirit.

He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Which spirit is that? I think that's the spirit of God. I think you could make a case for the Holy Spirit there, but I think that is probably also the spirit of God just because it goes with the flow of what's going on here. Right?

So verse 12, therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Which spirit is that? That's a little bit more difficult but I think that one is also our spirit. Our spirit. So I'm being led by the spiritual side of me, not by the carnal fleshly side of me.

For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God. Which one is that? I think that is the most difficult one out of this whole thing to say. Which one is that? To me, I think that's the Holy Spirit.

Here's the reason why. He's already talked about the spirit of God being in us. He's already talked about the spirit of Christ being in us. It makes all the sense in the world to me that the apostle Paul would keep going and say, Holy Spirit is also in us. The Godhead is in us and because of that, we are living the way we should.

If you wanna say that that's continuing with this thought of the spirit of God being God's character, I'm not gonna argue with you because it does say these are sons of God. We imitate our father but we also imitate Christ and we also imitate and put on the character of the holy spirit. Oh no. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage. What kind of what spirit is that?

That's an attitude, right? That I'm enslaved. I've got that spirit of a slave. A slave to what? Slave to sin perhaps, but even when it comes to the father, is my attitude am I am I and should I be a slave to the father?

Well, in some ways, yes. But is that my attitude toward the father in heaven? Do I have an attitude of bondage toward him? No. I'm a son, right?

You just said these are sons of God. You don't have this spirit of bondage, that disposition, but you receive the spirit of adoption. Which which kind of spirit? That's again disposition, our attitude, right? So not a spirit of bondage, oh, I'm just a slave, you know, doing what God tells me to do.

No. I have the spirit of adoption. I'm a son of God. I have the right to come to God as a child of his and the confidence that that should bring in my life by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. It's not just, hello father.

Abba is this idea of a like we would call daddy. I'm not gonna say daddy God but that kind of familiarity with God. That kind of idea that God is close to us and I have a relationship with him, Abba father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So the spirit himself would be which one?

That's gotta be the Holy Spirit. Right? If it's the spirit himself, that's the Holy Spirit. Bears witness with our spirit is our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

If indeed suffer with him that we also may be glorified together. Now, what do a lot of people do when they read Romans chapter eight? And the translators aren't particularly helpful to us because there's a lot of capital s's in there, right? But most people when they read Romans chapter eight, if they're not thinking about it and thinking carefully as they read through, what are they gonna do? Every time they read spirit, that's what?

That's holy spirit. Holy spirit, holy spirit, holy spirit and that sort of thinking where we've not differentiated these different uses of the word spirit has led a lot of people down into a doctrinal theological corner, I might say. Well, the Holy Spirit is acting in ways that I don't believe the Holy Spirit is acting because they're not careful about what's being talked about in these passages. Now we're gonna talk about that more as we go through this study, but if there are two things that I think would be most helpful, that have been most helpful to me and I think would be most helpful to all of us in our study of the spirit, it would be these two things. Number one, what we've just done in these two examples, being very careful about which use of the word spirit is being used and thinking carefully about that so that we might understand what is being communicated by the New Testament writers.

And then the second thing that I think is very very helpful, is a lot of times when we study the Holy Spirit, we immediately look at the Holy Spirit and divorce him from the other two members of the Godhead, God the Father and God the Son. And if we're gonna properly understand the holy spirit, how he dwells in us, how he works, what he does, who he is, I believe that we must study him in the context of the other two members of the Godhead. And so for the time we have left, let's at least introduce this idea of the spirit as deity and the spirit as person. Here is one of the comments that I've received. I'm gonna try and sprinkle these in as we go through our study.

If I don't actually read your question, I wanna at least make sure that your question is addressed in this study. Every question I want to be addressed in this study, but I'm gonna read a few of these as we go as I think it might be helpful to our thinking. So here's one of the comments that I received via the QR code, if you wanna scan that and submit your own. Some have said that the holy spirit is a personification of God's will. When I read spirit and replace it in my head with will, it makes sense.

Spirit meaning air or breath also makes sense. His spoken word, there's actually a compound word for spirit that that Paul uses to Timothy, right? All scripture is given by inspiration of God. The word inspiration there is a compound word, it means God breathed, God spirited, right? And so the spirit is involved in bringing about the word of God.

Do you have thoughts on this? Is the question. Boy, howdy do I have thoughts on that. I think that particular exercise can be helpful especially in some passages where you read and you think the will of God here, but I think where that fall short is, it takes the spirit from being his own person and turns it into turns him into an it. Turns him into just a will or a manifestation of the father which I do not believe is what the bible teaches.

And we can get ourselves into all sorts of trouble trying to explain the eternal God using physical earthly perceptions and definitions and analogies and those sorts of things. But there are some truths that we find in our bibles, that we find in the scriptures that we have to drive that stake in the ground like we talked about last time and say, whatever else I understand, whatever other analogy I wanna use, whatever way of thinking to try and understand these passages correctly, I cannot violate some of these principles. And we'll go through these principles in greater detail next time, but let me just run through the spirit is deity, the spirit is person, the spirit is distinct from the father and son, God is and God is one. So we think about those truths and we'll talk about those next time, we'll look at the references for each one of those, but God is one unified, the spirit is distinct from father and son, the spirit is person and the spirit is deity. And anything that we believe should not violate those four things that we're gonna talk about next time.

Alright. Thank you for your good attention tonight. And participation, thank you for that as well.