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Okay. It's time for us to get started tonight. If you'd like to take out your bible and turn to Acts chapter five, Acts chapter five, that is the first passage to which we will turn this evening. Acts chapter five, and we'll start reading there in verse three here in just a moment. Let's begin as we customarily do with the word of prayer.

If you'll bow with me, please. Our great God and father in heaven, thank you for this day. Thank you for your word and I pray as we study from it about the holy spirit who revealed it that we would understand correctly who you are, who you are in relation to the son and the holy spirit, who the holy spirit is as God. And I pray that we'd make right applications to those things to treat him in the way that we should. I pray for all of us as we're coming from different places and doing different things that we might enjoy these quiet moments where we're together with those of like mind and like faith and it will be an encouragement to us to be who you've called us to be through the rest of this week.

And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. So there are several ways to know and test whether your class has been a success so far. One of those ways might be to have an assessment, you know, I could hand out some papers and say, okay, go to town, are you gonna get this right or wrong and then look at that and say, okay, is everybody really getting what it is that we're doing here? Perhaps I could send out a survey like an evaluation and that's kind of more subjective but yeah, I'm getting something out of the class.

But I think my favorite way to know whether the class has been a success or not up to this point is when people start sharing memes about the class. So when someone uses the wrong definition of spirit in bible class like we talked about last time, well, clearly the class understands that spirit can be used in many different ways like we talked about, and that we have to use context to determine if it's referring to the Holy Spirit or not. So I feel very confident that you guys have gotten everything from the first two classes based on this meme that was shared. So let's turn our attention then to the Holy Spirit as the spirit is deity and person, and that's what I would like to focus on this evening. One of the comments that was submitted, and I read this right at the end of class last time, but I wanna begin with that tonight.

This commenter submitted this and said, 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. Do you have thoughts on this? And my thought on that is, there are some places, some scriptures where that sort of approach can be helpful.

But like so many things as it relates to God and the spirit, it is only helpful up to a point. For example, I've seen the analogy, I actually saw this used fairly recently by a preacher in the church, the Godhead is like water. Raise your hand if you've ever heard that before, that the Godhead is like water. Okay? And so here's the analogy.

He's always water but he can exist in three forms, as gas or liquid or solid. And so the analogy is that's God. God is one but he exists in three forms as God the father, God the son, God the holy spirit. Well, is thoughtful, interesting, that's an ancient analogy and it is almost certainly wrong as we think about what the scriptures teach. It's called modalism and it's an ancient heresy.

Many years ago, I was sent a video, it's a funny video, it was put out by Lutheran satire videos and it's called Saint Patrick's Bad Analogies. And so the setup to the video, it's an animated video and the setup is Saint Patrick of Saint Patty's Day fame is in Ireland and there are these two Irish farmers who are there. And they come up to Saint Patrick and they say, oh, what about simple Irish farmers? We need an analogy to understand the nature of the divinity and the nature of the trinity. And so Saint Patrick gives them this analogy that the Godhead is like water and their response to him is, that's modalism, Patrick.

An ancient heresy which espouses that God is not three distinct persons, but that he merely reveals himself in three different forms. It was funny when I saw it. But the point of that is this, we can get ourselves into all sorts of trouble. Listen, hear me clearly. Trying to explain the eternal God using physical earthly perceptions, definitions and analogies.

Do you agree with that? We can get ourselves in all sorts of trouble if we try and confine God in a way that we can fully comprehend comprehend and understand. However, there are lots of things in scripture that scripture makes explicit are true about God. And what we should do is stick to those things that we know to be true. That water analogy for example, isn't far off, I believe, from what Oneness Pentecostals believe.

And there are lots of Oneness Pentecostals that that we know and work with and are friends with in this area, in this community. And they believe there is one God who manifest himself as the son sometimes, sometimes as the spirit and sometimes as the father. And when you see them interacting, that's just one God going back and forth talking to himself or maybe it's the physical Jesus who is not God at that time and place talking to God the father or whatever the case might be. And to them, that's why the one name of God, Jesus is so important. That is the one true name of God but it's just one God in three different forms.

We think about Jehovah's witnesses. They believe that the Holy Spirit is God's active invisible force and analogies they use is, well, it's like electricity or it's like, the wind. But the Holy Spirit is not a distinct person, he's just a manifestation of the father. They'd go on to say that Jesus Christ is a created being and other things. Latter day saints believe that God the father is an exalted man with a glorified body of flesh and bones, and Jesus is his literal son or spirit son along with Lucifer and others.

And the Holy Spirit in those terms is God and distinct from God the father and God the son, but he doesn't have a body, he's disembodied in those sorts of things. I believe that's not what the scriptures teach in all of those things and I think that I could go through the scriptures and show you that's not what the scriptures think. Not what the scriptures teach. But I think it's perhaps most helpful to us if we just come back to this concept of where we gonna put our stake in the ground. What do we know to be true?

If you remember the three boxes that I introduced in our first class, what I know to be true and you're gonna have to blast it out to say something different than this. What I think I know, I'm pretty sure about this and then lots of things that I don't know, I'm not sure about this. So what is it that we know about the spirit as deity and person? These four things. The spirit is deity, number one, and we're gonna look at passages that talk about that.

The spirit is person, number two. And we're gonna look about passages that deal with that. The spirit is distinct from the father and the son. We're gonna look at passages that show that. And yet at the same time, God is one.

We're gonna look at some passages about that. This to me is what's in that box of what I know, where I put my stake in the ground and anything else that is outside of this cannot be what the bible teaches. Does that mean that I understand everything else? Certainly not. We'll get to that here in just a second.

But these four things I believe are demonstratable from what the scriptures teach us. So let's look at those things. First of all, that the spirit is deity, that he has these attributes of God, he has these attributes of deity. He's called God. So let's look there in acts chapter five and start in verse three.

So, Ananias and his wife Sapphira have sold lands in the early church. They're bringing money to the apostles but they lie about how much it is it's sold for and what they're giving. And in verse three, but Peter said, Ananias, 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? And after it was sold, was it not in your control?

Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to what? To God. So the Holy Spirit is equated with God here in this passage. He has he is eternal in nature.

Go to Hebrews chapter nine and verse 14. Hebrews chapter nine and verse 14. Let's start in verse 13. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, notice verse 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? Again, in the context, we have to determine what kind of spirit we're talking about here.

To me, it seems this is talking about the Holy Spirit and that Holy Spirit is what kind of spirit? What's the adjective in this in this passage? The eternal spirit. We see that in many places, he is listed with the father and with the son. Matthew chapter 28 and verse 19 is a good example of that.

Baptizing them in the name of the father, in the name of the son, in the name of the holy spirit. So listed along with father and son. In Genesis chapter one, the spirit was hovering over the face of the waters and God says in verse 26, let us make man in our image. And then we think about what it is that the spirit knows. I want you to turn to first Corinthians chapter two if you would.

Turn to first Corinthians chapter two. First Corinthians deals a ton with the Holy Spirit because they had these miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit and they were misusing those gifts. But I want us to look there in first Corinthians chapter two, start with me in verse four. And my speech, Paul says, and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. So we think about who was it that endowed power to them?

It was the Holy Spirit. And if we drop down to verse 10, 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 man which is in him, even so no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Now, have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

So the apostles, what were they given? They were given the Holy Spirit. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So, he knows the mind of God and the spirit was given to reveal the mind of God to the apostles. And then we go over a few chapters to first Corinthians chapter 12.

First Corinthians chapter 12 and start there in verse four. There are diversities of gifts but the same spirit. So what kind of miraculous gifts did the holy spirit give? Give me some examples. Faith, tongues Healing.

Prophecy, healing. K. So we have different kinds of gifts that were given by the holy spirit, but how many spirits are there? There is one spirit. And it's interesting, look in verses five and six now.

There are differences of ministries but the same lord. What Lord is he talking about? Jesus Christ. Verse six, and there are diversities of activities but it is the same God who works all in all. And so we see all three, father, son, and spirit here in this passage.

But I want you to keep reading verse seven, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For the one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit, another the word of knowledge through the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gift of healings by the same spirit, to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues. But one in the same spirit works in all these distributing to each one individually as he wills. As who wills? As the holy spirit wills, he gives this very power of God over to those upon whom the apostles have laid hands.

And so there are all these different things but they all come from the holy spirit. So what does that mean then as we think about Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Well, we sometimes refer to that as the Godhead and when we hear that word we think, well, that's not really a biblical word but that is one translation of this concept that is sometimes translated divine nature in the new American standard and other places. That's found three places, Acts 17, Romans one and Colossians two. Let's just go to Acts 17.

Acts 17 for just a second. Acts 17 and verse 29, in contrasting the true God with idols, Paul to those in Athens at Mars Hill says this, therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not think that the Godhead, the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. Truly, these times of ignorance got overlooked but now commands all men everywhere to repent. This divine nature, the Godhead, who God is, It's what some have called the state of being God. There's only one state of being God and our God, the one and only God is eternal, self existent, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, faithful, just and compassionate.

And this is true of all three beings in the Godhead. They are united in these attributes and their will in the exercise of those attributes. And that's a lot to try and wrap my head around. I say that and I have confidence in that, but if I'm really being totally honest, explaining that is in the what I think I know box. What I know with certainty is that the holy spirit is divine and that he is person, that he is distinct from the father and the son, and that he is still one with the father and the son.

So that's the second part, that the spirit is person. I think most people now, I've already mentioned some who don't believe that but mostly the spirit being deity is an issue for people. It's this next one that is a bigger issue for some people even as our commenter, put it, this idea of, it's just a personification of God and his will and his power, that idea of electricity or wind or those sorts of things that you can't see. And yet I think it's very clear that the bible speaks of the holy spirit as a distinct person. He is not just some it.

He's not an impersonal energy or influence on the universe. The spirit is not the force from Star Wars. He's not better felt than told. The spirit is a person of the godhead who acts often in very tangible ways. Let's think about this idea of personhood.

If you have your hand out, this might be a good time to get that out for just a second. Let's think about personhood for just a second. So the qualities of behavior and mental activities and personality traits characteristic of being a person are all attributed to the Holy Spirit and we can identify who or what something is based on their characteristics. In other words, does the Holy Spirit have the characteristics of being a person? Here's what I mean by that.

I'm gonna use the example of this name, Ike. And so your question, there on your handout, what I'd like for you to fill in these blanks for, who is Ike based on his or its characteristics? Now, if you don't have a handout, I'll put these questions on the board and I want you to answer them in your head before we answer them together. So who is Ike based on these characteristics? Okay.

Give me a thumbs up if you're ready. Alright. Let's see if we can go through this together. This is the hard hitting difficult questions of our bible class. So who is Ike?

Ike blew in from The Gulf in 2008 and did $30,000,000,000 in damage. Who is Ike? Hurricane. Raise your hand if you remember Ike, Hurricane Ike. Man, that we were still up in Lindale at the time and Ike even hit up there and we lost power and so forth.

So based on those characteristics, it's easy to see. Ike is a hurricane. How about this one? Ike wags his tail when he barks. Who is Ike?

He's a dog. How do you know? It doesn't say Ike the dog. So how do you know? The characteristics, you know.

I mean, maybe you could say it's a wolf or something else but no. Dogs bark and dogs wag their tail. So Ike is a dog. We see that based on those characteristics. How about this?

Ike is located in Ellis County, just three miles Northeast of Waxahachie and used to have a post office. Who is Ike? Ike is a town in Texas. We can put all that together. How do we know?

The characteristics tell us that that is a town. Okay? So Ike heard what she said and spoke tenderly to her but was insulted and grieved when she lied to him. Who is Ike? I'm sorry?

Ike Turner. I don't know who Ike Turner is. There's a there's a joke that I don't know on that one. I am either showing my age or showing not my age, I don't know which it is but Ike is a person. Wait, how do we know that Ike is a person?

Turner or otherwise? Yeah. Because he spoke. What what characteristics tell us that that he's a person? So we've got spoke, what else?

Heard, tenderly, what else? Lied, insulted, greet, you see all those? Those are characteristics of a person. You know what's interesting? Let me underline all of these.

Heard, spoke, insulted, grieved, lied to him. One, two, three, four, five, those are just five of the things that we see with whom? The Holy Spirit in our bibles. Now, personification is a thing, absolutely. But when we think about the holy spirit, the distinction of the spirit from the father gives us a real person who acts and all of these descriptions of the spirit working and living and responding as a person, not a human being, you understand, but as a distinct person shows us that this is who the Holy Spirit is.

And we might even have specific characteristics that help us identify that person. So for example, Ike won elections in 1952 and 1956 after a successful military career in World War two. Who is Ike? Dwight Eisenhower is Ike. I like Ike, the famous campaign.

Right? And so specific characteristics can even say, well, it's not just a person, it's this specific person, Dwight D Eisenhower. And what the bible doesn't have to do is say, the Holy Spirit is a person for us to come to this very reasonable conclusion. Right? And if the Holy Spirit is a person, then that means that he is distinct from the father and the son.

Though there are specific passages that speak to that that we'll get to in just a second. So, as we think about the spirit as a person distinct from the father, turn to John chapter 16 if you would. John chapter 16. Did y'all have any trouble with that? No.

That was that was simple. Right? And so let's not convolute it when we get to the holy spirit. So John chapter 16 and verse seven, nevertheless, Jesus says to his apostles on the night when he was to be betrayed. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.

For if I do not go away, the helper, the comforter will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you and when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And so we see the Holy Spirit convicting and coming. He is bringing comfort. He is being sent, all those sorts of things.

But I want you to notice especially verse 13 as it relates to his distinction from the Father. However, when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth for he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak and he will tell you the things to come. So if the spirit were merely an extension of the father's will, his words would be under his own authority. Right? Because that would just be the father speaking.

Instead, what we have is the spirit speaking as he is directed by the father and the son. Now, we continue to see these person traits. He can take bodily form. Form did he take in Luke chapter three and verse 22? He descended in the form of a dove and it says, descended bodily in the form of a dove.

The spirit can be lied to, like we read in Acts chapter five and verse four. He can be grieved like in Ephesians chapter four and verse 30. He can be resisted like Stephen accuses the Jews of in Acts chapter seven and verse 51. We go on to see that he teaches, Luke twelve twelve, he guides and hears and speaks in John 16 and Acts eight, he comforts in Acts nine thirty one and much more. If we went through the rest of the passages that I handed out to you two classes ago, we see him reminding and forbidding and searching and striving and sending, speaking using words, specific words, not just some feeling but words and we'll talk about that more later on.

So we see all of those things and it shows us that the holy spirit is not an it. The holy spirit is a he is a person. And this person that we call the holy spirit is distinct from both the father and the son. Oh, he's not here tonight. I can talk all about him.

Karen, don't tell Steve. I was having a study with Steve Ramsey and we're at somebody's house, I'm joking, you can tell him all you want. We're at somebody's house and this person came from a Pentecostal background and we were talking about God and the nature of God a little bit. And Steve said, now, the Holy Spirit is distinct from the father and the son, they are distinct persons. Now Reagan's gonna tell you all about that and why that is.

And Steve was late in the study and I'm like, bro, you didn't tell me ahead of time that I needed to do this but if I were to do that to you, if I were to say to you, alright, you know, the spirit is distinct from the father and the son, and now Tyler's gonna tell us why that is. Give me a passage where that is. Do you think you could do that? I'm almost certain that just about all of you in here could give me some passages where that would be the case. So let me give you a few examples.

I think maybe this one would come to mind pretty quickly right off the bat. Matthew chapter three. Turn over there to Matthew chapter three. Matthew chapter three. Let's start there in verse 13.

Sixteen and seventeen is really the heart of the matter, but let's start in verse 13. Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him saying, I need to be baptized by you and are you coming to me? But Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so for now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed him.

Verse 16. When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold, the heavens were open to him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And suddenly, a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Where is Jesus in this passage? He's in the water.

Where is the holy spirit in this passage? From heaven. And where is God the father? He is in heaven speaking down. So we've got Jesus in the water, the spirit coming from heaven, descending like a dove and alighting on him, and the voice coming from heaven, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Another example of this would be Matthew chapter 28. If you wanna turn over there, Matthew chapter 28. And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things which I have commanded you and low I'm with you always, amen to the end of the age. Now, lot of people take that name there and they say, well, what is the name of God? Like it's a there's power, the actual name, but this context, all what had been given to Jesus?

Authority and they were to do all of the things that that they were what? Commanded. Right? So we have authority, we have commands being given. This idea of name in this passage is by the authority of the father and the son and of the holy spirit and it is clear both in English and in Greek that we have those three distinct names, sources of authority there in that passage.

Alright. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three. Coincidentally, this is the first passage that I turned to after Steve said, Art Reagan explained that. I love this prayer.

One of my favorite prayers in all the bible and this is Paul praying on behalf of the church in Ephesus and he says, for this reason, I bow my knees to the father of our lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the height and the depth. What is the width and the length and the depth and the height to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God? And him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. So the fullness of God, being filled with the fullness of God includes whom?

Well, it includes Christ. It includes the spirit of God the father and it includes the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one to whom Paul was praying. We see the same thing if we drop down to chapter four starting there in verse four. There is one body and one spirit just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. So there's one spirit, there's one lord, there's one father and they are supposed to be in us as christians.

Now, I've got one final passage along these lines. There are others to which we could turn. There's one final passage and I mentioned this one because you say, well, Reagan, there's just one passage that kinda just takes care of it for us in really explicit terms and that's first John chapter five. First John chapter five and verse seven. For there are three that bear witness in heaven.

The father, the word, who would be whom? Christ Jesus and the holy spirit and these three are one. Well, that's it. Right? Now, why is that the not not the first passage to which I've turned?

Does anybody have an asterisk or a footnote there? Yes, money? Read textual difference. Yeah. So there's a textual variant there.

This particular verse is not in the earliest manuscripts. What they think happened, though we don't know, it could be, but based on the textual evidence, this is probably not originally in what wrote. It's probably a scribe. Who writes in their margins? Raise your hand if you write in their margins.

Well, people did that too back in the day but it wasn't nice printed copies. These are handwritten copies and then you write a handwritten note beside it or on top of it and probably what happened is interpreting the verses around this, a priest or a scribe or a monk or somebody wrote this verse in to explain and say, okay, here's what we know about God. These three are one. There's the father, there's the word and there is the spirit. And so, I don't use that as, you know, signed, sealed, delivered, here's the proof just because there is a textual variant there.

Okay. Spirit is deity, the spirit is person, distinct from father and son and God is one. We know that to be true, right? Deuteronomy chapter oh, I came in different. Deuteronomy chapter six and verse four reiterated by Jesus in Mark chapter 12, the Shema, in Jewish tradition.

Behold o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. So this idea of God being one, is that true? The bible says that it's true. Let's go to John chapter 17, John chapter 17, and this is what Jesus says about that, John chapter 17 and verse 11. Again, on this night in which he's to be betrayed, this is Jesus' prayer for his disciples.

Verse 11. Now, I am no longer in the world but these are in the world and I come to you, holy father, keep me through your name, those whom you have given me that they may be one, what? Just as we are, just as we are one. I want them to be unified, one, just as we, son and father are one. Drop down to verse 20.

I do not pray for these alone but also for those who believe in me through their word. Who's that? If you're a Christian, raise your hand. Oh, you're absolutely right. That's us.

That they may be they all may be one as you father in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me, that the glory which you gave me I've given to them that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. He says, I want them to be one. And my question is, how can this be possible? Well, as one submitted question, the trinity, the father, son and holy spirit.

This concept is always mentioned, however, have a hard time understanding how they can be one and separate entities at the same time. Well, me too. That's a difficult concept and that's been a stumbling block for some to come to Christ. But think about this, husband and wife are two separate but they become one what? One flesh unified in that way.

Many members become one what? Body, making up that one body together. Many men become one what? Psalm eight and verse four. What is man that you are mindful of him?

Is that talking about an individual man? Well, further in the context it is, but that's talking about what we would call what? One humanity, one mankind, right? So, one man. And with those examples, what we have is the idea of being one in purpose and one in power, unified in goals and thoughts and actions, but also this idea of one in nature, the one state of being something and so God is both.

He is unified. The three are one in purpose and power and goals and thoughts and actions but they are also one in divine nature, one state of being God. And I get all of that and yet all of these explanations fall a little short for me. But isn't that what we would expect? What are we dealing with here?

We're dealing with the spiritual realm and we're dealing with God in that spiritual realm. So what do I try and do? I try and come back to what I know to be true. There is this ancient example, I say ancient, from the 12 hundreds, this first started showing up that the father is fully God, the son is fully God, the spirit is fully God, but the father is not the spirit, the spirit is not the son and the son is not the father. And so what I've given you, there are lots of passages that we could talk to for any of these but this I believe to be true and I think there is scriptural evidence for each one of these.

That all of them are one god and yet they are not each of these distinct persons. Beyond that, great is the mystery of godliness. But I believe it to be so. And it is from this perspective then, as we think about the holy spirit that we can talk about his work and his power and the things that he is doing and that's where we'll pick up next time. Thank you for your good attention tonight.